The Dead Sea Scrolls - What We Now Know

Introduction.
On several occasions I have been asked exactly what the Dead Sea Scrolls tell us about the Old Testament Scriptures. Previously I have answered these questions on an individual basis, but here is an article written by a man who is an authority on the subject, Patrick Zukerman of Probe Ministries. The article follows my brief introduction - just scroll down to find it.

But what do the Dead Sea Scrolls tell us - in a nutshell?

These scrolls give us versions of most of the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament) which is an amazing 1,000 years older than that which had previously been available.
Many Old Testament critics fully expected to find numerous errors and changes in the text to back up their theories that parts of the Old Testament (mainly the torah) were actually written quite late and then made to appear very early. The discovery of these scrolls left many of these critics looking quite foolish, for their accuracy and similarity to the Old Testament texts which were already in use is simply astonishing! This gives great support to the belief that God supernaturally preserved these texts through the Jewish people. It also gives great support to the Judeo-Christian claim that these are no ordinary documents cobbled together by fallible men, but that they are indeed of divine inspiration.
In the case of Isaiah, many Bible critics had insisted that three different writers were involved in this book and had believed that any new discovery of sources - even a few hundred years earlier - would have backed up their theory of three different Isaiah writers writing at three different times. But these critics were astonished to find that a version of this great book of prophecy which was 1,000 years earlier was structured in exactly the same manner as the commonly accepted version already in use!
In the case of Daniel too, Bible critics were aware that things written in that book were actually fulfilled in history and had attempted to get around this by insisting that the book was actually written very late and after many of its claimed 'prophecies' came to fruition. But the discovery of these scrolls places their theories on very weak ground indeed, for the Dead Sea Scrolls provided further evidence that the Old Testament completed canon existed prior to the third century B.C. Old Testament scholarship has now concluded that the Aramaic in Daniel is much closer to the form used in the fourth and fifth century B.C. than to the form of the second century B.C. (when liberal scholars had claimed that the book was written).
Anyway, that is enough from me, this great article now follows with many additional details.UK Apologetics Editor, January 2007.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Written by Patrick Zukeran

The Story of the Scrolls

Worship at the sacred Jerusalem Temple had become corrupt, with seemingly
little hope for reform. A group of devoted Jews removed themselves from the
mainstream and began a monastic life in the Judean desert. Their studies of
the Old Testament Scriptures led them to believe that God’s judgment
upon Jerusalem was imminent and that the anointed one would return to restore
the nation of Israel and purify their worship. Anticipating this moment, the
Essenes retreated into the Qumran desert to await the return of their
Messiah. This community, which began in the third century B.C., devoted their
days to the study and copying of sacred Scripture as well as theological and
sectarian works.

As tensions between the Jews and Romans increased, the community hid their
valuable scrolls in caves along the Dead Sea to protect them from the
invading armies. Their hope was that one day the scrolls would be retrieved
and restored to the nation of Israel. In A.D. 70, the Roman general Titus
invaded Israel and destroyed the city of Jerusalem along with its treasured
Temple. It is at this time that the Qumran community was overrun and occupied
by the Roman army. The scrolls remained hidden for the next two thousand
years.

In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd named Muhammad (Ahmed el-Dhib) was searching
for his lost goat and came upon a small opening of a cave. Thinking that his
goat may have fallen into the cave, he threw rocks into the opening. Instead
of hearing a startled goat, he heard the shattering of clay pottery. Lowering
himself into the cave, he discovered several sealed jars. He opened them
hoping to find treasure. To his disappointment, he found them to contain
leather scrolls. He collected seven of the best scrolls and left the other
fragments scattered on the ground.

Muhammad eventually brought some of the scrolls to a cobbler and
antiquities dealer in Bethlehem named Khando. Khando, thinking the scrolls
were written in Syriac, brought them to a Syrian Orthodox Archbishop named
Mar (Athanasius) Samuel. Mar Samuel recognized that the scrolls were written
in Hebrew and suspected they may be very ancient and valuable. He eventually
had the scrolls examined by John Trevor at the American School of Oriental
Research (ASOR). Trevor contacted the world’s foremost Middle East
archaeologist, Dr. William Albright, and together these men confirmed the
antiquity of the scrolls and dated them to sometime between the first and
second century B.C.

After the initial discovery, archaeologists searched other nearby caves
between 1952 and 1956. They found ten other caves that contained thousands of
ancient documents as well. One of the greatest treasures of ancient
manuscripts had been discovered: the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Date and Contents of the Scrolls

Scholars were anxious to confirm that these Dead Sea Scrolls were the most
ancient of all Old Testament manuscripts in the Hebrew language. Three types
of dating tools were used: tools from archaeology, from the study of ancient
languages, called paleography and orthography, and the carbon-14 dating
method. Each can derive accurate results. When all the methods arrive at the
same conclusion, there is an increased reliability in the dating.

Archaeologists studied the pottery, coins, graves, and garments at Khirbet
Qumran, where the Essenes lived. They arrived at a date ranging from the
second century B.C. to the first century A.D. Paleographers studied the style
of writing and arrived at dates raging from the third century B.C. to the
first century A.D. Scientists, using the radiocarbon dating method, dated the
scrolls to range from the fourth century B.C. to the first century A.D. Since
all the methods came to a similar conclusion, scholars are very confident in
their assigned date for the texts. The scrolls date as early as the third
century B.C. to the first century A.D.{1}

Eleven caves were discovered containing nearly 1,100 ancient documents
which included several scrolls and more than 100,000 fragments.{2} Fragments
from every Old Testament book except for the book of Esther were discovered.
Other works included apocryphal books, commentaries, manuals of discipline
for the Qumran community, and theological texts. The majority of the texts
were written in the Hebrew language, but there were also manuscripts written
in Aramaic and Greek.{3}

Among the eleven caves, Cave 1, which was excavated in 1949, and Cave 4,
excavated in 1952, proved to be the most productive caves. One of the most
significant discoveries was a well-preserved scroll of the entire book of
Isaiah.

The famous Copper Scrolls were discovered in Cave 3 in 1952. Unlike most
of the scrolls that were written on leather or parchment, these were written
on copper and provided directions to sixty-four sites around Jerusalem that
were said to contain hidden treasure. So far, no treasure has been found at
the sites that have been investigated.

The oldest known piece of biblical Hebrew is a fragment from the book of
Samuel discovered in Cave 4, and is dated from the third century B.C.{4} The
War Scroll found in Caves 1 and 4 is an eschatological text describing a
forty-year war between the Sons of Light and the evil Sons of Darkness. The
Temple Scroll discovered in Cave 11 is the largest and describes a future
Temple in Jerusalem that will be built at the end of the age.

Indeed, these were the most ancient Hebrew manuscripts of the Old
Testament ever found, and their contents would yield valuable insights to our
understanding of Judaism and early Christianity.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic Text

The Dead Sea Scrolls play a crucial role in assessing the accurate
preservation of the Old Testament. With its hundreds of manuscripts from
every book except Esther, detailed comparisons can be made with more recent
texts.

The Old Testament that we use today is translated from what is called the
Masoretic Text. The Masoretes were Jewish scholars who between A.D. 500 and
950 gave the Old Testament the form that we use today. Until the Dead Sea
Scrolls were found in 1947, the oldest Hebrew text of the Old Testament was
the Masoretic Aleppo Codex which dates to A.D. 935.{5}

With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we now had manuscripts that
predated the Masoretic Text by about one thousand years. Scholars were
anxious to see how the Dead Sea documents would match up with the Masoretic
Text. If a significant amount of differences were found, we could conclude
that our Old Testament Text had not been well preserved. Critics, along with
religious groups such as Muslims and Mormons, often make the claim that the
present day Old Testament has been corrupted and is not well preserved.
According to these religious groups, this would explain the contradictions
between the Old Testament and their religious teachings.

After years of careful study, it has been concluded that the Dead Sea
Scrolls give substantial confirmation that our Old Testament has been
accurately preserved. The scrolls were found to be almost identical with the
Masoretic text. Hebrew Scholar Millar Burrows writes, “It is a matter
of wonder that through something like one thousand years the text underwent
so little alteration. As I said in my first article on the scroll,
‘Herein lies its chief importance, supporting the fidelity of the
Masoretic tradition.’”{6}

A significant comparison study was conducted with the Isaiah Scroll
written around 100 B.C. that was found among the Dead Sea documents and the
book of Isaiah found in the Masoretic text. After much research, scholars
found that the two texts were practically identical. Most variants were minor
spelling differences, and none affected the meaning of the text.

One of the most respected Old Testament scholars, the late Gleason Archer,
examined the two Isaiah scrolls found in Cave 1 and wrote, “Even though
the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea in
1947 were a thousand years earlier than the oldest dated manuscript
previously known (A.D. 980), they proved to be word for word identical with
our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The five
percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and
variations in spelling.”{7}

Despite the thousand year gap, scholars found the Masoretic Text and Dead
Sea Scrolls to be nearly identical. The Dead Sea Scrolls provide valuable
evidence that the Old Testament had been accurately and carefully
preserved.

The Messianic Prophecies and the Scrolls

One of the evidences used in defending the deity of the Christ is the
testimony of prophecy. There are over one hundred prophecies regarding Christ
in the Old Testament.{8} These prophecies were made centuries before the
birth of Christ and were quite specific in their detail. Skeptics questioned
the date of the prophecies and some even charged that they were not recorded
until after or at the time of Jesus, and therefore discounted their prophetic
nature.

There is strong evidence that the Old Testament canon was completed by 450
B.C. The Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, is dated
about two hundred fifty years before Christ. The translation process occurred
during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus who ruled from 285 to 246 B.C.{9} It
can be argued that a complete Hebrew text from which this Greek translation
would be derived must have existed prior to the third century B.C.

The Dead Sea Scrolls provided further proof that the Old Testament canon
existed prior to the third century B.C. Thousands of manuscript fragments
from all the Old Testament books except Esther were found predating
Christ’s birth, and some date as early as the third century B.C. For
example, portions from the book of Samuel date that early, and fragments from
Daniel date to the second century B.C.{10} Portions from the twelve Minor
Prophets date from 150 B.C to 25 B.C.{11} Since the documents were found to
be identical with our Masoretic Text, we can be reasonably sure that our Old
Testament is the same one that the Essenes were studying and working from.

One of the most important Dead Sea documents is the Isaiah Scroll. This
twenty-four foot long scroll is well preserved and contains the complete book
of Isaiah. The scroll is dated 100 B.C. and contains one of the clearest and
most detailed prophecies of the Messiah in chapter fifty-three, called the
“Suffering Servant.” Although some Jewish scholars teach that
this refers to Israel, a careful reading shows that this prophecy can only
refer to Christ.

Here are just a few reasons. The suffering servant is called sinless
(53:9), he dies and rises from the dead (53:8-10), and he suffers and dies
for the sins of the people (53:4-6). These characteristics are not true of
the nation of Israel. The Isaiah Scroll gives us a manuscript that predates
the birth of Christ by a century and contains many of the most important
messianic prophecies about Jesus. Skeptics could no longer contend that
portions of the book were written after Christ or that first century
insertions were added to the text.

Thus, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide further proof that the Old Testament
canon was completed by the third century B.C., and that the prophecies
foretold of Christ in the Old Testament predated the birth of Christ.

The Messiah and the Scrolls

What kind of Messiah was expected by first century Jews? Critical scholars
allege that the idea of a personal Messiah was a later interpretation made by
Christians. Instead, they believe that the Messiah was to be the nation of
Israel and represented Jewish nationalism.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, written by Old Testament Jews, reveal the messianic
expectations of Jews during the time of Christ. Studies have uncovered
several parallels to the messianic hope revealed in the New Testament as well
as some significant differences. First, they were expecting a personal
Messiah rather than a nation or a sense of nationalism. Second, the Messiah
would be a descendant of King David. Third, the Messiah would confirm His
claims by performing miracles including the resurrection of the dead.
Finally, He would be human and yet possess divine attributes.

A manuscript found in Cave 4 entitled the Messianic Apocalypse, copied in
the first century B.C., describes the anticipated ministry of the Messiah:

For He will honor the pious upon the throne of His eternal kingdom,
release the captives, open the eyes of the blind, lifting up those who are
oppressed… For He shall heal the critically wounded, He shall raise
the dead, He shall bring good news to the poor.

This passage sounds very similar to the ministry of Jesus as recorded in
the Gospels. In Luke chapter 7:21-22, John the Baptist’s disciples come
to Jesus and ask him if He is the Messiah. Jesus responds, “Go tell
John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor
have the good news brought to them.”

But, with the similarities there are also differences. Christians have
always taught that there is one Messiah while the Essene community believed
in two, one an Aaronic or priestly Messiah and the other a Davidic or royal
Messiah who leads a war to end the evil age.{12}

The Essenes were also strict on matters of ceremonial purity while Jesus
criticized these laws. He socialized with tax collectors and lepers which was
considered defiling by the Jews. Jesus taught us to love one’s enemies
while the Essenes taught hatred towards theirs. They were strict
Sabbatarians, and Jesus often violated this important aspect of the law. The
Qumran community rejected the inclusion of women, Gentiles, and sinners,
while Christ reached out to these very groups.

The many differences show that the Essenes were not the source of early
Christianity as some scholars propose. Rather, Christianity derived its
teachings from the Old Testament and the ministry of Jesus.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have proven to be a significant discovery, confirming
the accurate preservation of our Old Testament text, the messianic prophecies
of Christ, and valuable insight into first century Judaism.

Two Major Prophets and the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been an asset in the debate regarding two major
and well disputed books of the Old Testament, Daniel and Isaiah. Conservative
scholars maintained that Daniel was written in the sixth century B.C. as the
author declares in the first chapter. The New Testament writers treated
Daniel as a prophetic book with predictive prophecies. Liberal scholars began
teaching in the eighteenth century that it was written in the Maccabean
Period or the second century B.C. If they are correct, Daniel would not be a
prophetic book that predicted the rise of Persia, Greece, and Rome.

Before the discovery of the scrolls, critical scholars argued that the
Aramaic language used in Daniel was from a time no earlier than 167 B.C.
during the Maccabean period. Other scholars, such as well-respected
archaeologist Kenneth Kitchen, studied Daniel and found that ninety percent
of Daniel’s Aramaic vocabulary was used in documents from the fifth
century B.C. or earlier.{13} The Dead Sea Scrolls revealed that
Kitchen’s conclusion was well founded. The Aramaic language used in the
Dead Sea Scrolls proved to be very different from that found in the book of
Daniel. Old Testament scholars have concluded that the Aramaic in Daniel is
closer to the form used in the fourth and fifth century B.C. than to the
second century B.C.

Critical scholars challenged the view that Isaiah was written by a single
author. Many contended that the first thirty-nine chapters were written by
one author in the eighth century B.C., and the final twenty-six chapters were
written in the post-Exilic period. The reason for this is that there are some
significant differences in the style and content between the two sections. If
this were true, Isaiah’s prophecies of Babylon in the later chapters
would not have been predictive prophecies but written after the events
occurred.

With the discovery of the Isaiah Scroll at Qumran, scholars on both sides
were eager to see if the evidence would favor their position. The Isaiah
Scroll revealed no break or demarcation between the two major sections of
Isaiah. The scribe was not aware of any change in authorship or division of
the book.{14} Ben Sira (second century B.C.), Josephus, and the New Testament
writers regarded Isaiah as written by a single author and containing
predictive prophecy.{15} The Dead Sea Scrolls added to the case for the unity
and prophetic character of Isaiah.

Inventory of the Scrolls

The following is a brief inventory provided by Dr. Gleason Archer of the
discoveries made in each of the Dead Sea caves.{16}

Cave 1 was the first cave discovered and excavated in 1949. Among the
discoveries was found the Isaiah Scroll containing a well-preserved scroll of
the entire book of Isaiah. Fragments were found from the other Old Testament
books which included Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Judges, Samuel,
Ezekiel, and Psalms. Non-biblical books included the Book of Enoch, Sayings
of Moses, Book of Jubilee, Book of Noah, Testament of Levi and the Wisdom of
Solomon. Fragments from commentaries on Psalms, Micah, and Zephaniah were
also discovered.

Cave 2 was excavated in 1952. Hundreds of fragments were discovered,
including remains from the Old Testament books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, Job, Psalms and Ruth.

Cave 3 was excavated in 1952. Here archaeologists found the famous Copper
Scrolls. These scrolls contained directions to sixty-four sites containing
hidden treasures located around Jerusalem. So far, no treasure has been found
at the sites investigated.

Cave 4, excavated in 1952, proved to be one of the most productive.
Thousands of fragments were recovered from nearly four hundred manuscripts.
Hundreds of fragments from every Old Testament book were discovered with the
exception of the Book of Esther. The fragment from Samuel labeled 4Qsam{17}
is believed to be the oldest known piece of biblical Hebrew, dating from the
third century B.C. Also found were fragments of commentaries on the Psalms,
Isaiah, and Nahum. The entire collection of Cave 4 is believed to represent
the scope of the Essene library.

Cave 5 was excavated in 1952 and fragments from some Old Testament books
along with the book of Tobit were found.

Cave 6 excavated in 1952 uncovered papyrus fragments of Daniel, 1 and 2
Kings and some other Essene literature.

Caves 7-10 yielded finds of interest for archaeologists but had little
relevance for biblical studies.

Cave 11 was excavated in 1956. It exposed well-preserved copies from some
of the Psalms, including the apocryphal Psalm 151. In addition, a
well-preserved scroll of part of Leviticus was found, and fragments of an
Apocalypse of the New Jerusalem, an Aramaic Targum or paraphrase of Job, was
also discovered.

Indeed these were the most ancient Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament
ever found, and their contents would soon reveal insights that would impact
Judaism and Christianity.

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